How similar are the changes in neural activity resulting from mindfulness practice in contrast to spiritual practice?

Barnby, Joseph M; Bailey, Neil W.; Chambers, Richard; Fitzgerald, Paul B.

doi:10.1016/j.concog.2015.07.002

Cited by 23 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 94 publications

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“…Specifically, anxious women may benefit from practicing mindfulness, a validated stress management tool that helps reduce stress and anxiety (Deyo et al, 2009;Zeidan et al, 2014). fMRI studies have demonstrated that practicing mindfulness meditation results in decreased activation of the medial PFC and parietal cortices (Brewer et al, 2011;Barnby et al, 2015), regions that the current study found to be hyperactive in women while experiencing stress-induced anxiety. Men may benefit from learning strategies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) (Lindquist et al, 1997); there is evidence that CBT enhances activity in the IPL and dmPFC in response to anxiety-inducing situations (Goldin et al, 2013(Goldin et al, , 2014, regions that were hypoactive in men during stress anxiety in our study.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Gender differences in neural correlates of stress‐induced anxiety

Seo

Ahluwalia

Potenza

et al. 2016

J of Neuroscience Research

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Although gender differences have been identified as a crucial factor for understanding stress-related anxiety and associated clinical disorders, the neural mechanisms underlying these differences remain unclear. To explore gender differences in the neural correlates of stress-induced anxiety, the current study utilized functional magnetic resonance imaging to examine brain responses in 96 healthy men and women with commensurable levels of trait anxiety as they engaged in a personalized guided imagery paradigm to provoke stress and neutral-relaxing experiences. During the task, a significant Gender main effect emerged, with men displaying greater responses in the caudate, cingulate gyrus, mid-brain, thalamus, and cerebellum. In contrast, women showed greater responses in the posterior insula, temporal gyrus, and occipital lobe. Additionally, a significant Anxiety Ratings × Gender interaction from whole-brain regression analyses was observed in the dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, left inferior parietal lobe, left temporal gyrus, occipital gyrus, and cerebellum (p < 0.05, whole-brain FWE corrected), with positive associations between activity in these regions and stress-induced anxiety in women, but negative associations in men, indicating that men and women differentially utilize neural resources when experiencing stress-induced anxiety. The findings suggest that in response to stress, there is a greater utilization of the medial prefrontal-parietal cortices in experiencing subjective anxiety in women, while decreased utilization of this circuit was associated with increased subjective anxiety states in men. The current study has implications for understanding gender-specific differences in stress-induced anxiety and vulnerability to stress-related clinical disorders, and for developing more effective treatment strategies tailored to each gender.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 69%

Gender differences in neural correlates of stress‐induced anxiety

Seo

Ahluwalia

Potenza

et al. 2016

J of Neuroscience Research

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“…The inferior parietal lobule (BA 40), a part of Wernicke’s area, was correlated with language ability development 54 , which is in accordance with the basic definition of the Describing facet and the tendency of describing the verbalization of emotions into words. As a major node of the mindfulness meditation complex network, especially in relation to fronto-parietal networks 55 , the inferior parietal lobule performed significantly increased activity during meditation 56 or after training 38 . For example, 4-year experienced meditators showed greater inferior parietal cortex activity during a brief meditation compared with a control state 56 , and there were also meditators compared to controls who showed increased blood flow 57 and activation 58 of the inferior parietal lobule, which is regarded to be involved in attention control.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A distinction between two instruments measuring dispositional mindfulness and the correlations between those measurements and the neuroanatomical structure

Zhuang

Liu

et al. 2017

Sci Rep

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The most widely used measurements of mindfulness are the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS) and the Five Facet Mindfulness Questionnaire (FFMQ). However, controversies exist regarding the application of these scales. Additionally, the neural mechanisms of dispositional mindfulness havebecome a topic of interest. In the current study, we used surface-based methodology to identify the brain regions underlying individual differences in dispositional mindfulness in a large non-clinical sampleand compared the two instruments for measuring the dispositional mindfulness. The results indicated that theMAAS scores were significantly associated with increased greymatter volumes in the right precuneus and the significant association between the precuneus and depression symptomatology was mediated by MAAS scores. Regarding the FFMQ, the Describing, Nonjudging, and Nonreactivity facets were selectively associated with the cortical volume, thickness and surface area of multiple prefrontal regions as well as the inferior parietal lobule. Importantly, Describing mediated the association between the dorsolateral PFC volume and the cognitive reappraisal strategies of emotion regulation. These resultssuggested that the MAASwere mainly associated with self-awareness, while the FFMQ facets were selectively involved in emotion regulation, attention control and self-awareness. Therefore, this study characterized the differences in inter-individual variability between the two typical measurements of dispositional mindfulnessand the correlations between those measurements and imaging analyses.

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“…In considering a theoretical foundation for why the parietal cortex has been repeatedly implicated in studies of spirituality, it is important to consider its function more broadly. The parietal cortex contributes to multiple processes including attention, impulse control, planned reasoning, sensory processing, and spatial reasoning, amongst other aspects of human functioning (Arnsten 2009;Teixeira et al 2014;Barnby et al 2015). Intriguingly given that spirituality involves a felt-sense of connection with someone or something outside of oneself, the parietal cortex, and perhaps particularly in the right hemisphere (Keenan and Gorman 2007;however, see Morin 2007), has been identified as contributing to a sense of self (Lou et al 2017).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Neural Correlates of Personalized Spiritual Experiences

et al. 2019

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Across cultures and throughout history, human beings have reported a variety of spiritual experiences and the concomitant perceived sense of union that transcends one's ordinary sense of self. Nevertheless, little is known about the underlying neural mechanisms of spiritual experiences, particularly when examined across different traditions and practices. By adapting an individualized guided-imagery task, we investigated neural correlates of personally meaningful spiritual experiences as compared with stressful and neutral-relaxing experiences. We observed in the spiritual condition, as compared with the neutral-relaxing condition, reduced activity in the left inferior parietal lobule (IPL), a result that suggests the IPL may contribute importantly to perceptual processing and self-other representations during spiritual experiences. Compared with stress cues, responses to spiritual cues showed reduced activity in the medial thalamus and caudate, regions associated with sensory and emotional processing. Overall, the study introduces a novel method for investigating brain correlates of personally meaningful spiritual experiences and suggests neural mechanisms associated with broadly defined and personally experienced spirituality.

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How similar are the changes in neural activity resulting from mindfulness practice in contrast to spiritual practice?

Cited by 23 publications

References 94 publications

Gender differences in neural correlates of stress‐induced anxiety

Gender differences in neural correlates of stress‐induced anxiety

A distinction between two instruments measuring dispositional mindfulness and the correlations between those measurements and the neuroanatomical structure

Neural Correlates of Personalized Spiritual Experiences

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